July 18, 2007

"We just thought, O.K., they're funny," Nakagawa says. "Suddenly we started getting hits. I was like, where are these coming from?"

Now it's $4,000 a week ads, and it's all coming from readers generating content based on one simple, static idea. And yet, they have done something -- something that is exceedingly hard to do. It's incredibly easy, but impossibly hard. That's a lot. It's like inventing the paper clip or whatever. You're jealous, looking on, after it's been done. Surely, you could have thought that up too. Why are they rich from it? Ah, deal with it. Damn!

What''s with the complete absence of links to the actual site? I looked -- twice -- and couldn't find one. How annoying! Here it is, and it is kind of cute.

People enjoy humor, and this just shows another way to make money off that fact -- I mean, look at CuteOverload. These sites are very similar, as they rely on cute animals, user input, comments, and ratings. I'd say it's practically a formula. The trick is to find a widely-appealing animal and not limit yourself too much.

See, I always see that site listed as the top one on Wordpress and, after reviewing it a few times, I still just don't get it. I guess you have to like cats a lot..and baby talk. But I'm glad for their success! I guess that the "cutesy-ness" just doesn't paw at me like, obviously, millions of others.

Okay, I admit it. I flat out don't get it. How can it be that something as stupid as this Cheezburger site creates new careers for its developers?

It's just bizarre to me. If the site were funny or had more of that Dada-ish quality tibore mentions, I guess I could understand it. But the posts are about as amusing as the "humorous" cards you might find at a dollar store.

Galvanized and Mark, I'm with you. Totally don't get it. And I love cats. Baby talk though? I don't know, that commercial where the guy straps his Subway sandwich into the car seat and talks baby talk to it makes me want to run out of the room screaming.

I don't think it is baby-talk; it is just mangled English. The joke of pets writing notes in mangled English is an old one; Gary Larson used to use it all the time. Mix in the human tendency to ascribe human motivations to pets and you get cat macros.

Some of them are funny, some aren't. There are enough of the former to keep me checking out the site every day or two.

Ok, I am completely naive but I did not realize that so many blogs/ basic websites made that kind of money. Check out the slide show if you have not. Wow! I have to ask, Althouse - do you make much from your ads? maybe you could you quit the prof gig and make more being a full time blogger?

the 'lolcat' phenomenon's spelling quirks trace to commonly accepted abbreviations and deliberate spelling mistakes found on the various internet chat software: irc, xchat, and the various instant messaging clients.

it's mildly funny in a sophomoric way (to me at least), but then i r getz teh int3rn3tz.

You know how people bitch about how their favorite band was so much cooler when it was underground? That's how I feel about "lolcats." Wacky captioned cat pictures have been going back and forth for at least a year, and damnit, they were vulgar, bizzare, and funny. It was a weekly joke called "Caturday" and it was awesome.

But Caturday turned into Lolcats and became retarded. Caturday was a bunch of drunk college kids. Lolcats is dumpy office secretaries in their late 30's.

Oh, and the goddamn cutesy misspellings. When Caturday started up, the occasional misspelling was done as a parody of internet chatroom speak ("I'm in ur base killin ur doodz") but it turned into this non-stop oogey boogey baby talk that triggers instant diabetes.

I created a Facebook group last fall called "I judge you when you use poor grammar." It began as a joke, but now it has over 160,000 members in it. A T-shirt company called Teeful (www.Teeful.com) contacted me about selling shirts with the group name on them, and that has provided my income for the summer.

Well, I like the LOLcats. Some of them. Some of them I think are just stupid (like the walrus and his bucket), and most of them aren't that amusing. But every so often there's one that makes me laugh out loud, and that's enough for me. What more can you ask for from a bunch of quick photoshops?